Texas coach Mack Brown wondered, perhaps for the first time, if he should throw in the towel after his Longhorns lost to TCU, sources told Orangebloods.com.

It wasn’t the first for those who’ve stressed about the failures of the program in recent years.

It wasn’t long before he returned his mind to the big picture. Brown has built the team for a return to prominence by 2013 and 2014.

“The process started three years ago—2010 was a very poor year. I thought we coached poorly and played poorly in most of it,” Brown told the Texas Rivals site. “There were some changes made, at that time and last year we really stepped up defensively and did well.

“I was proud of that.”

Brown described the Longhorns as “inept” on offense this year, but said they ran the ball better. This season, he said, UT was better on offense, but not on defense.

“And the last five weeks, we played much better defense,” he said. “I really believe we’re headed in the right way. We’re headed in the right direction. This will be a fun challenge for us with Oregon State coming in. Just about everyone is back (next year), and we’ll have some older guys on the team with only three seniors starting.”

Texas has missed a BCS bowl three-consecutive years—and that comes on the heels of playing in the national championship game.